Has anyone ever calculated the total cost of discrimination in the workplace? Derreck tackles the subject head-on by sharing how his organization found itself grappling with the issue. He will guide you through an examination of how diversity and inclusion problems impact your corporate bottom line. From long-term harm to your brand and weakened stock prices to negative perceptions within the community, Derreck reveals the potential savings that come about when employees understand the cost of discrimination and the value of their fellow employees. He illustrates with eye-opening examples, how our upbringing and unconscious biases can become a net negative to organizational growth and have a negative impact on the bottom-line. The end goal of Derreck’s presentation is to birth into the bloodstream of the company’s culture what he calls a “Corporate Moral Aptitude,” an intriguing notion similar to Emotional I.
SHSMD Connections 2021 Virtual runs October 19-21. Register today!
KEYNOTE - Reimagining Diversity & Inclusion: A Pathway to Courageous Conversations
Featured Speaker:
Derreck Kayongo
Derreck Kayongo is an Entrepreneur, CNN Hero, & Founder of Global Soap Project. Transcription:
KEYNOTE - Reimagining Diversity & Inclusion: A Pathway to Courageous Conversations
Intro: The following SHSMD podcast is a production of DoctorPodcasting.com.
Bill Klaproth (Host): This is a special podcast produced on site at SHSMD Connections 2021 annual conference in San Antonio. As we talked with keynote speakers, in session leaders direct from the show floor. And we had the opportunity to talk with Derrek Kayongo. who is an entrepreneur, CNN Hero and Founder of the Global Soap Project about his keynote, Reimagining Diversity and Inclusion, a Pathway to Courageous Conversations. I am honored to have Derrek Kayongo with us here at the podcast booth. Derrek, welcome.
Derreck Kayongo (Guest): Thank you so much, Bill.
Host: Derrek your keynote was fantastic.
Derreck : Oh, you're very kind.
Host: Yes, it was so good.
Derreck : Thank you.
Host: So for somebody listening to this podcast who wasn't able to see you in your keynote, can you just give us a quick cliff notes version of your keynote, if that's possible?
Derreck : Yeah, it's very possible because it will take me four hours. No, really quickly, it's a story about a young man who grows up around very innovative parents. And one of the things that they do is they, they make soap. Then he becomes enthralled in the middle of a war, and then he becomes a refugee and sees the power of soap.
Then he gets to go to the US to go to school and he sees American hotels throwing away soap, and he decides I'm going to recycle soap to take it back home. And the joy of that whole story is that he gets to actually solve the problem of the germs on that used soap. And he's able to recyle it and takes it back home and the adulation and joy of the mothers back at home as he gives them, that bar of soap is where the real story is.
Host: It's an amazing story. And how many people have you helped? Do you know how many bars of soap you've distributed?
Derreck : At this point, Bill, I don't.
Host: Okay. A lot.
Derreck : I just, I think a lot, is a good one. Yeah. That's a lot is a number.
Host: So, let me ask you this. So we're all in healthcare marketing here. You've got a great message, from your message and what you've been through. What is most important for us to know what can we take away from what you told us today? And how can we put that to use in our, in our professional and personal lives today?
Derreck : Yeah. I think for me, the value, has been sort of heightened during this COVID period. We take our healthcare services and providers for granted. We just assume, okay, when I fall sick, of course they'll be there and they'll take care of me, but we don't know that they have to deal with a lot to get healthcare delivered as a service. But also it also heightened this notion of inequality within healthcare and the need for us to actually focus on building systems that can make everybody acquire healthcare. That means that we have to get our politics right. We have to get a social indicators right. Our economics right to cover everybody. So, I think those are the two big things that have been important to me.
Host: Yeah, so what can someone like me or anyone do, on a personal level, what can we do? You just talked about, we have to get politics, right. We have to get these other things, right. What can we do to try to make these things right within ourselves?
Derreck : So one of the first things I usually tell people be healthy, take care of your body. Exercise is not a joke. You know, we love to sort of obsficate and sort of franchise the responsibility of us being healthy individually, to other people. And then we wonder why we have to then go into this much more expensive applications of being healthy, like medicine and going to the doctor every two weeks.
So, the first key to health is you being responsible with your health. Number two, which is a fun one is to then understand the future of health, where's health going tomorrow and the next 100 years? Can you look back a hundred years back and see what healthcare looked like? You have to value the, the innovations that are taking place. Can you imagine having your tooth pulled in 1645? It was horrible.
Host: Yeah. That's no. No.
Derreck : So, I tell people that just like we're worried about technology in IT and all these other places, we should worry about technology going forward in health. And we should welcome it and invest in it. So, those are the two sort of clairvoyant things I can talk
Host: about.
I love it. You looked into your crystal ball for me, Derrek. I love that. number one you said be responsible for our own health which I think is so great. Be healthy. And then think about where is the future of health is going? So if we do that, we can make health more equitable for all of us. And if you think about it, if we do take health into our own hands, we do put less of a burden on the health system.
We are able to take care of populations that might not be as healthy. But part of that is looking at the world and looking at our country and looking at the populations that may not be as healthy because they're in a food desert. They're not able to have fruits and vegetables and things. They've got to drive a half hour to get to a grocery store. So, we've got to make health more equitable for them as well by providing those things in their own communities. So, it sounds like our own communities have to change so people can take more responsibility of their health.
Derreck : Yeah. And that also has to do with us building organizations like the one we are at right now that can help streamline systems to make systems efficient. We want hospitals to be efficient, to deliver systems the better way that we want them to deliver systems. We want the marketing to communicate properly what are the new medicines and what are the new technologies that are coming up so that the more we educate the population, the more effective we are in delivering health services. We've got to understand the power of communication and marketing is part of it.
Host: Yes education so true. I love how you said that. That's so good. You also said, at the beginning, it seems like we take healthcare for granted. It's so true. We just think somebody's going to be there to take care of me, but that kind of attitude doesn't really work when you talk about we need to be more responsible for our health. We're too lax. So, we do need to look at healthcare really as how much value it brings to us.
Derreck : Correct. And there is a way we need to do that is because of the cost of it. It's more expensive when you don't take care of yourself initially than when you wait for things to sort of go down the tube. And then it makes the insurance costs very high. And if you know how insurance works, we all put money in the pot. We then take the money out when we really need it. So, I look at insurance costs. I look at systems, I look at education itself. I look at politics and the policies, but I also look at this division of labor between all of us. I think if COVID has taught us anything, we all need to be attentive to this idea of health because you know, germs don't care about us. Their goal is to eat us. They have an undivided attention in surviving and the way they survive is by eating us. So, we should have the same sort of dedication to health, our health by being very, very tenacious.
This idea of having a conversation around whether some people should have healthcare, others should not have - Germs don't have that discussion.
Host: They don't choose. just go.
Derreck : No. If the - Bill germs are waiting for you, man.
Host: Yeah, that's right. And we protect ourselves against them. And that's where the soap comes in. That's where your story comes in. You told a great story about soap and how it's needed to fight the germs. And it's, it's just not happening.
Derreck : And it's not that Africans can't afford soap and it's not accessible to them, but it's the leadership. When you create an environment of poor leadership, all these institutions are supposed to be serving the people fail. And when those institutions fail, then these very, very bad things happen, like poor hygiene, lack of clean water.
So you find that the lost knowledge around good leadership is that African leaders have not put the calculation together to understand that the more you deplete the resources of the people, the more, actually it's expensive to run those nations. So, for you to walk around as a leader and you have your country with a GDP or a per capita income of 250 bucks per capita income, and you come to the United Nations to give a speech how powerful your country is, you're a joke. But then you open up these doors for this incendiary diseases to come and attack the people. And therefore the life expectancies are very low.
Host: It's an amazing story. And thank you for being here. I wish you could see Derrek. He is a fine dressed man. And as you said in the keynote, we American men, our dressing habits suck.
Derreck : It's, it's deplorable.
Host: We are, we will, we'll post a picture of Derrek. It's, he's amazing. Look at this suit. I, I can't hold a candle to this man. Amazing. Very inspiring. Thank you so much. Thank you for seeing a problem and going, you know what, oh, wait a minute. I can solve a problem here by doing this. So, a very inspirational, so thank you for being here at SHSMD Connections, 2021. We appreciate it. Thank you again.
Derreck : you.
Host: And sign up for the SHSMD Connections virtual conference, October 19th through the 21st 2021, which will feature two days of new sessions plus recordings from the in-person event. Go to shsmd.org/education/annualconference to learn more and to get registered and please join us at next year's conference. SHSMD Connections, 2022, September 11th through the 14th at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland outside of Washington, DC. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and to access our full podcast library for other topics of interest to you visit SHSMD.org/podcasts. I'm Bill Klaproth. As always, thanks for listening.
KEYNOTE - Reimagining Diversity & Inclusion: A Pathway to Courageous Conversations
Intro: The following SHSMD podcast is a production of DoctorPodcasting.com.
Bill Klaproth (Host): This is a special podcast produced on site at SHSMD Connections 2021 annual conference in San Antonio. As we talked with keynote speakers, in session leaders direct from the show floor. And we had the opportunity to talk with Derrek Kayongo. who is an entrepreneur, CNN Hero and Founder of the Global Soap Project about his keynote, Reimagining Diversity and Inclusion, a Pathway to Courageous Conversations. I am honored to have Derrek Kayongo with us here at the podcast booth. Derrek, welcome.
Derreck Kayongo (Guest): Thank you so much, Bill.
Host: Derrek your keynote was fantastic.
Derreck : Oh, you're very kind.
Host: Yes, it was so good.
Derreck : Thank you.
Host: So for somebody listening to this podcast who wasn't able to see you in your keynote, can you just give us a quick cliff notes version of your keynote, if that's possible?
Derreck : Yeah, it's very possible because it will take me four hours. No, really quickly, it's a story about a young man who grows up around very innovative parents. And one of the things that they do is they, they make soap. Then he becomes enthralled in the middle of a war, and then he becomes a refugee and sees the power of soap.
Then he gets to go to the US to go to school and he sees American hotels throwing away soap, and he decides I'm going to recycle soap to take it back home. And the joy of that whole story is that he gets to actually solve the problem of the germs on that used soap. And he's able to recyle it and takes it back home and the adulation and joy of the mothers back at home as he gives them, that bar of soap is where the real story is.
Host: It's an amazing story. And how many people have you helped? Do you know how many bars of soap you've distributed?
Derreck : At this point, Bill, I don't.
Host: Okay. A lot.
Derreck : I just, I think a lot, is a good one. Yeah. That's a lot is a number.
Host: So, let me ask you this. So we're all in healthcare marketing here. You've got a great message, from your message and what you've been through. What is most important for us to know what can we take away from what you told us today? And how can we put that to use in our, in our professional and personal lives today?
Derreck : Yeah. I think for me, the value, has been sort of heightened during this COVID period. We take our healthcare services and providers for granted. We just assume, okay, when I fall sick, of course they'll be there and they'll take care of me, but we don't know that they have to deal with a lot to get healthcare delivered as a service. But also it also heightened this notion of inequality within healthcare and the need for us to actually focus on building systems that can make everybody acquire healthcare. That means that we have to get our politics right. We have to get a social indicators right. Our economics right to cover everybody. So, I think those are the two big things that have been important to me.
Host: Yeah, so what can someone like me or anyone do, on a personal level, what can we do? You just talked about, we have to get politics, right. We have to get these other things, right. What can we do to try to make these things right within ourselves?
Derreck : So one of the first things I usually tell people be healthy, take care of your body. Exercise is not a joke. You know, we love to sort of obsficate and sort of franchise the responsibility of us being healthy individually, to other people. And then we wonder why we have to then go into this much more expensive applications of being healthy, like medicine and going to the doctor every two weeks.
So, the first key to health is you being responsible with your health. Number two, which is a fun one is to then understand the future of health, where's health going tomorrow and the next 100 years? Can you look back a hundred years back and see what healthcare looked like? You have to value the, the innovations that are taking place. Can you imagine having your tooth pulled in 1645? It was horrible.
Host: Yeah. That's no. No.
Derreck : So, I tell people that just like we're worried about technology in IT and all these other places, we should worry about technology going forward in health. And we should welcome it and invest in it. So, those are the two sort of clairvoyant things I can talk
Host: about.
I love it. You looked into your crystal ball for me, Derrek. I love that. number one you said be responsible for our own health which I think is so great. Be healthy. And then think about where is the future of health is going? So if we do that, we can make health more equitable for all of us. And if you think about it, if we do take health into our own hands, we do put less of a burden on the health system.
We are able to take care of populations that might not be as healthy. But part of that is looking at the world and looking at our country and looking at the populations that may not be as healthy because they're in a food desert. They're not able to have fruits and vegetables and things. They've got to drive a half hour to get to a grocery store. So, we've got to make health more equitable for them as well by providing those things in their own communities. So, it sounds like our own communities have to change so people can take more responsibility of their health.
Derreck : Yeah. And that also has to do with us building organizations like the one we are at right now that can help streamline systems to make systems efficient. We want hospitals to be efficient, to deliver systems the better way that we want them to deliver systems. We want the marketing to communicate properly what are the new medicines and what are the new technologies that are coming up so that the more we educate the population, the more effective we are in delivering health services. We've got to understand the power of communication and marketing is part of it.
Host: Yes education so true. I love how you said that. That's so good. You also said, at the beginning, it seems like we take healthcare for granted. It's so true. We just think somebody's going to be there to take care of me, but that kind of attitude doesn't really work when you talk about we need to be more responsible for our health. We're too lax. So, we do need to look at healthcare really as how much value it brings to us.
Derreck : Correct. And there is a way we need to do that is because of the cost of it. It's more expensive when you don't take care of yourself initially than when you wait for things to sort of go down the tube. And then it makes the insurance costs very high. And if you know how insurance works, we all put money in the pot. We then take the money out when we really need it. So, I look at insurance costs. I look at systems, I look at education itself. I look at politics and the policies, but I also look at this division of labor between all of us. I think if COVID has taught us anything, we all need to be attentive to this idea of health because you know, germs don't care about us. Their goal is to eat us. They have an undivided attention in surviving and the way they survive is by eating us. So, we should have the same sort of dedication to health, our health by being very, very tenacious.
This idea of having a conversation around whether some people should have healthcare, others should not have - Germs don't have that discussion.
Host: They don't choose. just go.
Derreck : No. If the - Bill germs are waiting for you, man.
Host: Yeah, that's right. And we protect ourselves against them. And that's where the soap comes in. That's where your story comes in. You told a great story about soap and how it's needed to fight the germs. And it's, it's just not happening.
Derreck : And it's not that Africans can't afford soap and it's not accessible to them, but it's the leadership. When you create an environment of poor leadership, all these institutions are supposed to be serving the people fail. And when those institutions fail, then these very, very bad things happen, like poor hygiene, lack of clean water.
So you find that the lost knowledge around good leadership is that African leaders have not put the calculation together to understand that the more you deplete the resources of the people, the more, actually it's expensive to run those nations. So, for you to walk around as a leader and you have your country with a GDP or a per capita income of 250 bucks per capita income, and you come to the United Nations to give a speech how powerful your country is, you're a joke. But then you open up these doors for this incendiary diseases to come and attack the people. And therefore the life expectancies are very low.
Host: It's an amazing story. And thank you for being here. I wish you could see Derrek. He is a fine dressed man. And as you said in the keynote, we American men, our dressing habits suck.
Derreck : It's, it's deplorable.
Host: We are, we will, we'll post a picture of Derrek. It's, he's amazing. Look at this suit. I, I can't hold a candle to this man. Amazing. Very inspiring. Thank you so much. Thank you for seeing a problem and going, you know what, oh, wait a minute. I can solve a problem here by doing this. So, a very inspirational, so thank you for being here at SHSMD Connections, 2021. We appreciate it. Thank you again.
Derreck : you.
Host: And sign up for the SHSMD Connections virtual conference, October 19th through the 21st 2021, which will feature two days of new sessions plus recordings from the in-person event. Go to shsmd.org/education/annualconference to learn more and to get registered and please join us at next year's conference. SHSMD Connections, 2022, September 11th through the 14th at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland outside of Washington, DC. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and to access our full podcast library for other topics of interest to you visit SHSMD.org/podcasts. I'm Bill Klaproth. As always, thanks for listening.